If you are a B2B buyer sourcing cat litter from China for the first time, an on-site factory audit is the single highest-leverage trip you will make. This is the same checklist our team uses when we evaluate new raw-material suppliers — and the same checklist we apply to ourselves when B2B buyers visit the Aisha-Pet factory in Dalian.
Most cat litter factories in China look impressive at first glance — the showroom is polished, the conference room has an LCD screen, the lunch is excellent. None of that tells you whether you should wire a 30% deposit. This article distils the five checks that actually predict supplier reliability, drawn from 25 years of running a brand-owned cat litter operation at PY-PET’s Aisha-Pet factory in Dalian.
Note from PY-PET: we host 40+ B2B buyer factory visits every year at our Dalian facility. If you would like to use this checklist on our floor, request a tour via the inquiry form — we cover airport pickup and one night of hotel accommodation for qualified buyers.
Check 1 — Business license and legal entity verification
The first thing to verify on a Chinese supplier audit is that the business you are visiting is the legal entity that will invoice you. In China, a factory (manufacturing company) and a trading company can share office space, share staff, and share a brand name — but they are different legal entities with different liabilities.
What to ask for
- The supplier’s (business license) — verify the company name, the legal representative, the registered capital, and the scope of business (must include “manufacturing” for a factory).
- The supplier’s (Unified Social Credit Code) — 18-digit code that uniquely identifies every Chinese legal entity.
- The factory’s (land / property certificate) — proves the factory owns (or long-term leases) the production facility. A factory that rents a generic industrial warehouse may be relabelling product from a different factory.
How to verify
- Search the Unified Social Credit Code on the (National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System) — the official Chinese government registry.
- Cross-check the registered address on Google Maps / Baidu Maps against the address the supplier gave you.
- Confirm the supplier’s invoicing entity matches the entity on the business license. If not, walk away.
Check 2 — Production line and capacity verification
The second on-site check is the production line itself. A real cat litter factory has dedicated production lines, an in-house QC lab, raw-material warehousing, finished-goods warehousing, and dust-extraction equipment. Walk the floor and verify each one.
What to look for on the production line
- Number of production lines — a small tofu cat litter operation runs 1–2 lines. A medium operation runs 4–6 lines. A large brand-owned factory like Aisha-Pet runs 12 lines (8 tofu + 4 bentonite / cassava / pine). Anything below 4 lines in a “brand-owned” claim is worth questioning.
- Line uptime — ask the production manager for the line uptime over the last 30 days. 70%+ is industry-standard. Below 50% indicates maintenance or staffing problems.
- Dust-extraction equipment — every plant making low-dust tofu cat litter must have baghouse dust collectors feeding the pelletiser. No dust extraction = no low-dust claim.
- Fragrance-loading station — for scented SKUs, there should be a dosing station after the pelletiser and before the packer.
- Packing line — manual vs automated. Most Chinese cat litter plants run semi-automated packing (operator on bagging, machine on sealing). Fully-automated packing is a sign of capex investment.
How to verify capacity claims
- Ask for the production calendar for the last 6 months. A 6,000-ton-per-month plant should show an output in the 4,000–6,000-ton range consistently.
- Ask for the electricity bill for the last 3 months (anonymised). A 12-line cat litter plant typically draws 250,000–400,000 kWh per month. A suspiciously low bill indicates the plant is not running at claimed capacity.
- Cross-check finished-goods warehouse stock — a healthy plant holds 7–14 days of finished goods. Below 3 days indicates production is hand-to-mouth.
Check 3 — Raw material traceability
The third audit check is raw material traceability. Tofu cat litter is made from food-grade soybean residue — but “food-grade” is a claim that needs evidence. Same goes for bentonite (Wyoming-grade claim), pine wood (pine-only, no mixed wood), and so on.
What to ask for
- Soybean residue supplier list — names and contact details of the residue suppliers. Verify at least one supplier is a registered food-grade processor.
- Raw material inbound inspection records — every truckload of residue should be sampled and tested (moisture, foreign matter, oil content).
- Storage silos / bays — segregated by supplier and inbound date. FIFO rotation should be visible.
- MSDS for every raw material — including the binders (corn starch, guar gum), fragrance oils, and any additives.
Check 4 — In-house QC lab and SGS testing
The fourth audit check is the QC lab. A brand-owned cat litter manufacturer must have an in-house QC lab that runs at minimum these tests per batch: dust content (post-extraction sieve), moisture, clumping speed, clumping strength, fragrance load (if applicable), pH. Heavy-metal and biodegradability testing can be in-house or third-party (SGS is the most common).
What to look for
- Lab equipment — sieve stack (for dust content), moisture analyser, pH meter, stopwatch for clumping speed, gram scale for clumping strength.
- QC staff — at least 2 dedicated QC technicians per shift. Names and qualifications on the lab door.
- Retention samples — every batch should have a 500g–1kg retention sample kept for 12 months minimum.
- SGS relationship — ask for the SGS lab code or account number, and verify by calling SGS China directly. Many factories claim SGS testing without actually sending samples.
Check 5 — Social compliance and BSCI / Sedex walk-through
The fifth and final audit check is social compliance. If you are a B2B buyer supplying a retail chain in EU, Oceania or North America, the retailer’s procurement policy will require BSCI, Sedex / SMETA, or equivalent third-party social audit. The audit must be current (within the last 12 months) and the audit report must be available for review.
What to look for
- Current BSCI / Sedex audit report — request a copy (redacted is fine). Verify the audit date and auditor signature.
- Working hours record — sampled for the last 3 months. Should be below 60 hours/week including overtime. Above 70 hours/week is a red flag.
- Wage slips — sampled for the last 3 months. Should be at or above the local minimum wage plus legally-required overtime premiums.
- Worker dormitories — if on-site dormitories are present, check fire exits, fire extinguishers, and bed density (single-occupancy preferred).
- Worker age verification — should be 18+ for production-floor staff. Some plants use a face-recognition clock-in system; ask to see the system in action.
Visiting the Aisha-Pet factory
The above is exactly the audit our own team applies to ourselves when a B2B buyer visits. We host 40+ factory visits per year at our 18,000 m² Dalian facility — typically 2 days covering production floor, QC lab, raw-material warehousing, finished-goods warehousing, social compliance walk-through, and a closing session with the export team.
If you would like to use this checklist on our floor, request a tour via the inquiry form. We cover airport pickup at Dalian Zhoushuizi International (DLC) and one night of hotel accommodation for qualified buyers.
Need a factory visit or a written quote?
Cat Global is manufactured in-house at PY-PET’s Aisha-Pet factory in Dalian. 25 years, 12 production lines, 6,000 tons/month capacity, 5 international certifications, 80+ countries served. We are happy to host you.
